The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE REJECTION OF DEMOCRACY
By Avi Davis

Seventeen years ago, when the Maastricht Treaty was signed, ushering into life the new European Union, I thought I was witnessing a turning point in history. This was going to be the true beginning of the new world order, I proclaimed to anyone who would listen. After all, Communism was dead, the Soviet Union shattered into a million pieces, Sadaam Hussein neutralized and totalitarian regimes around the globe were left quaking in fear of the march of democracy. The Europeans had it right. They were going to transform their old European Economic Community into a new supranational government which would issue its own currency and begin to exercise control over not only continental economic policy but arrive at a common foreign and security policy.

In short, the new European Union looked like the harbinger of a new world government that would once and for all eliminate war. Then this former hub of world conflict would become an exemplar of how humanity could come to its senses in eschewing militarism for the finer virtues of economic progress and mutual prosperity.

Well that’s certainly what the founders of the EU would have had us believe. Several treaties later, the machinery of the new government has bloated to 20,000 bureaucrats, Europeans have slumped into a pacific torpor and the EU has become the largest unrepresentative deliberative body on Earth.

The Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force on December 1, 2009 after an excruciatingly long ratification process among the constituent states, has put the final seal on the European Union, stamping its permanence on the face of the old continent.

But don’t think of this creature as some kind of federated copy of the United States or Canada. The reborn European Union is actually nothing of the sort.

It is governed by three separate institutions. The first, and weakest, is the European Parliament, whose MPs are elected by the populations of their respective constituencies for a fixed five-year term. They approve the president and members designate of the European Commission and may force the Commission to resign through a vote of censure. Uniquely among parliaments, however, this new one body lacks any power to reject bills put before it by the executive. Members are chosen through an unnecessarily complex system of proportional representation and party lists so they do not represent constituents for whom they are accountable. Parties from the 27 countries are chosen in blocs that claim a shared political outlook, self-described as either Left or Right. Yet there is no proper opposition and nor could there be when the parliament does not answer to real people but only to the abstract entity of “Europe.”

Then there is the European Commission, which operates as a kind of revamped Committee of Public Safety, hoisted virtually intact from the French Revolution. This ’super civil service’ formally originates all legislative measures and is responsible for the implementation of all decisions agreed by the Council of Ministers. It has a number of direct decision-making powers in such spheres as the coal and steel industries, agriculture and the environment. At the head of the Commission is a committee of 20 nominated commissioners who are appointed for a five-year renewable term of office. They are answerable to a president and up to two vice-presidents. It is a kind of executive, legislative and bureaucratic body all rolled into one.

Yet the true power of the New Europe resides in The Council of Ministers. This is the central and ultimate decision-making body in the union. Each country has one vote on this Council and no directive can be issued or amended, unless it is agreed by the Council.

What role do ordinary Europeans have in the operation and control of their new government? Almost none. There is no voice allowed for the European commoner ( a feudal designation which seems increasingly appropriate for this new absolutist system) because no one actually represents him or her. In fact when ordinary Europeans are ever asked their opinion, such as in the issue of referenda by the EU’s constituent governments, they are routinely slapped aside. This indisputably occurred in Ireland in 2008 when the Irish voted not to ratify the new EU constitution but were summarily ignored.. The British government had also promised its citizens a referendum on the Constitution, but it soon reneged, as did the leadership of its two most prominent opposition parties. There is almost no conduit for ordinary Europeans to have their grievances aired. What the Europeans governments have done, unbeknownst to most of their citizens, is to set in place an elite permanent bureaucracy, answerable only to a group of 27 men who have been delegated the responsibility governing 500 million people.

The irony of this top heavy concentration of power is that the European Commission, on its very own website, extols the primacy of democracy as its central objective:

“The European Union believes that democracy and human rights are universal values that should be vigorously promoted around the world. They are integral to effective work on poverty alleviation and conflict resolution”

But the actual structure of the European Union itself makes it less an appropriate vehicle for inspiring democratic change around the world, than the mushrooming of an oligarchy which owes little of its power to popular suffrage.

Considering all this, maybe the Europeans don’t have it right after all. Goaded by their intellectuals and bureaucrats into accepting the EU as a fait accompli, they may awaken one day from their post democratic, post-Christian narcosis to find that they have actually been abandoned by their self appointed guardians. They may then finally understand that there is no leadership ready or willing to address their fundamental concerns- the rise of fundamentalist Islam, demographic collapse, the emasculation of national identity and the erosion of traditional values.

In the event that such an awakening occurs, it may, ironically, be the much despised hegemon on the other side of the Atlantic that will emerge as the true model of modern democracy - and of which the European Union will be only a ghostly, fading image.

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

Officials Warn al Qaeda 'Certain' to Try Attack Soon- SIOBHAN GORMAN And EVAN PEREZ
WASHINGTON—The U.S.'s top intelligence officials said Tuesday that an attempted al Qaeda attack on the U.S. in the next three to six months was "certain." An official also said the Nigerian who allegedly attempted to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day was again cooperating with federal investigators. Republicans have accused the administration of squandering a chance to gain valuable intelligence from the suspect by using the civilian court system to charge him, instead of declaring him an enemy combatant and subjecting him to more interrogation. Al Qaeda remains a significant threat to the U.S., the officials said, and the group's recent evolution in tactics includes dispatching individuals who can enter the U.S. without arousing suspicion, such as the man accused of attempting the Christmas Day attack. Such tactics have created "a new degree of difficulty" for U.S. spies seeking to thwart the next attack, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Al Qaeda will remain intent on attacking in the U.S. at least until Osama bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri, are killed or captured, Mr. Blair said. Al Qaeda's many affiliates are also of great concern to the spy agencies. The Yemeni affiliate, which is believed to have directed the attempted Christmas Day attack, will continue to attempt additional attacks on the U.S., Mr. Blair said. (WSJ)

Netherlands: Center of Jihadi counterfeiting
Jihadists in the Netherlands have been key in recent years in counterfeiting passports and other identity documents for attackers all over the world, including suicide bombers. According to justice department researchers in the report "Jihadist terrorism in the Netherlands", master counterfeiters in the Netherlands provided counterfeit documents in preparation for the attack on a Western ally in Afghanistan and for Jihadists who prepared a bomb-attack elsewhere in Europe. Counterfeiters in the Netherlands provided documents for Jihadists who wanted to travel to Afghanistan. Requests for forged passports even came from key figures in the notorious Moroccan terrorist organization Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group. There is also one known case of a counterfeit driver's license provided to a Spanish terror suspect. The master counterfeiters produce to order, say the justice researchers, who based themselves on a full inspection of the files of 12 wide-scale, Dutch investigation into Jihadist activities between July 2001 and July 2005: "In addition a potential suicide terrorist asked them for very specific forgeries; possibly to get access to a foreign target." (Islamineurope)

Compulsory full-body scans launched at Heathrow-Philippe Naughton
Passengers using Heathrow and Manchester airports have been told that from today they will not be allowed to board their flights if they refuse to submit to full-body scans. The advanced imaging technology (AIT) scanners went into operation at the two airports at noon, despite concerns expressed by civil liberties campaigners. Birmingham airport will follow suit later this month, ahead of a national rollout. The new security measure for air passengers follows the attempted bomb attack aboard a US plane on Christmas Day. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to detonate a bomb hidden in his underpants as his flight was about to land in Detroit. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, confirmed the new policy in a written parliamentary statement, saying that the scanners would help security staff to detect explosives or other dangerous items. “In the immediate future, only a small proportion of airline passengers will be selected for scanning,” he said. “If a passenger is selected for scanning and declines, they will not be permitted to fly.” (Timesonline.co.uk)

German universities to offer degrees in Islamic theology
Germany will announce a plan on Monday to offer training programs for students who wish to become Muslim spiritual leaders, or imams, the country's top academic body said.
The German Council of Science and Humanities, composed of senior government officials and professors, called for institutes of Islamic theology to be established at two to three universities initially. It added that the training of imams and Muslim schoolteachers should be an accepted program of study awarded with a university degree. Germany's education minister Annette Schavan welcomed the council's decision. "Training Moslem religion teachers and developing Islamic studies… is part of a decisive integration policy in a modern society," Schavan said. The advisory panel had been working on a report over the last two years focused on reforming the teaching of theology at Germany universities, in particular Christian, Jewish, and Islamic theology. (dw-world.de)

Jury begins deliberations in 'Lady Al Qaeda' case by asking for copies of Aafia Siddiqui's Testimony- Alison Gendar DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The jurors apparently can't get enough of "Lady Al Qaeda."They began deliberations Monday by asking for copies of testimony Aafia Siddiqui delivered on the stand last week. Siddiqui - prone to outbursts in the courtroom - denied she had grabbed an Army rifle and opened fire on a team of American interrogators in Afghanistan. In closing arguments yesterday, prosecutors said Siddiqui perjured herself. "She raised her right hand and she lied to your face," prosecutor Christopher LaVigne said in Manhattan Federal Court. "She lied and lied and lied." Prosecutors noted that six witnesses said they saw her start shooting in 2008 after she was arrested with bomb-making chemicals and a list of New York City landmarks. Defense lawyer Linda Moreno said she wasn't asking the jury to call the military and FBI witnesses liars, but to look at the lack of physical evidence. (Nydailynews)

U.S. Government-funded Voice of America News Promotes Shariah-Compliant Finance in Indonesia
The Voice of America (VOA) was founded as a radio broadcast service to be beamed around the world to bring news from an American perspective to people in countries which didn’t have access to American news. VOA played a supportive role during the Cold War by providing a counterweight to communist-controlled news organizations behind the Iron Curtain. Today, it appears that VOA has taken on a very different role: as cheerleader for Shariah-Compliant Finance. Linked below is an article written by Sara Schonhardt for VOANews.com about “Islamic Banking” in Indonesia. This article reads like a marketing brochure or press release, not a news story written by a journalist. In short, it is pure propaganda, every bit as biased as an article written by government news agencies in nations like Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Iran on the subject of “Islamic Banking.” Nowhere in the article is there any hint of balance. The tone is sympathetic, even blaming “corruption” in Indonesia for the fact that Islamic banking only makes up 2.5% of Indonesia’s banking sector. (Shariahfinancewatch)

UW’s right to invite Hirsi Ali and debate her ideas
Capital Times editorial
Religious extremists intimidate, threaten and sometimes even kill in the name of their “true faith.” This is an unsettling reality brought into stark relief on a regular basis by news headlines -- like last week’s reports on the conviction of the Christian zealot who murdered a physician in the vestibule of a church because the zealot did not approve of the doctor’s determination to provide reproductive health care to women. The case of the Kansas killer reminds us that, all too frequently, Christianity has been warped by its cruder adherents into an excuse for denying women basic rights and dignity. But Christianity is not the only religion that is used and misused for the purpose of making such excuses. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch parliamentarian and author who will speak Tuesday on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, rejects the religion of her birth, Islam, because she argues that it permits, and in some parts of the world even encourages, the mistreatment of girls and women. Hirsi Ali is an intensely controversial figure who lives under constant death threats -- just as the murdered doctor in Kansas did -- and her appearance on the UW campus has stirred concern among Muslim students. (Capitaltimes)

Joseph Massad at UCLA: Gay-Bashing 101-Eric Golub
A lecture [1] last week at the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies [2] (CNES) offered a mixture of intellectually deficient material mixed with a dash of bigotry. It was delivered by Joseph Massad, associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University. The topic of Massad’s lecture was “Pre-Positional Conjunctions: Sexuality and/in Islam [1].” While past CNES lectures [3] resulted in Israel-bashing [4] and anti-Semitism [5], UCLA finally decided to honor its commitment to diversity by attacking another minority group. This time, homosexuals had their turn in the multicultural bile wheel. From inception to completion, Massad’s lecture was nothing more than gay-bashing. This was on par with the thesis of Massad’s 2007 book, Desiring Arabs, which posits [6] that gay sexuality among Muslims does not exist. Rather, it is a Western plot designed to undermine the Muslim world. (Frontpagemagazine)

MEDIA BIAS

Human Rights Watch seeks to prove Middle East 'balance'-Simon Rocker
A top official from Human Rights Watch met Jewish representatives in London this week in an effort to persuade them that the organisation is not biased against Israel. The New York-based human rights organisation — which condemned both Israel and Hamas over their conduct of last year’s Gaza war — has faced a barrage of criticism from Jewish groups over the year, with even its own founder, Robert Bernstein, recently accusing it of undue focus on Israel. Iain Levine, its programmes director, had talks with senior figures from the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council on Monday and the London Jewish Forum on Tuesday. Jon Benjamin, Board chief executive, said they had raised the issue of “balance and proportionality” of HRW’s coverage of Israel. They had also voiced concern that “HRW research on Israel lends itself too readily to being used by those who question Israel’s very existence and who paint Zionism and its supporters as morally corrupt”. (Jewishchronicle)

‘Financial Times sees Israel as main cause of ME problems'-Jonny Paul
Study shows business paper downplays factors integral to conflict, such as terrorism and split between Hamas, Fatah.
LONDON – The Financial Times views Israel as the key cause of problems in the Middle East, according a study published by a London-based media monitoring organization this week. A study published by Just Journalism accuses the international business newspaper’s editorial coverage of ignoring the Iranian threat, downplaying other issues and viewing Israel as primarily responsible for the perpetuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report, titled “Financial Times 2009: A year of Middle East editorials,” analyzed 121 editorials from the paper’s hard copy and Web site published in 2009. The FT placed the role of settlement-building in the West Bank “above any other single factor affecting the conflict” and referred to settlement-building as “colonization” in nine editorials. The FT is also accused of downplaying factors integral to the conflict such as terrorism and the political split between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank. Israeli political leaders are depicted as “irredentist,” “hawkish” and “ultra-nationalist,” while Palestinian leaders are portrayed as “moderate” and “conciliatory.” (Jpost)

Why I Stand with Geert Wilders-Daniel Pipes
He represents all Westerners who cherish their civilization.
Who is the most important European alive today? I nominate the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. I do so because he is best placed to deal with the Islamic challenge facing the continent. He has the potential to emerge as a world-historical figure. That Islamic challenge consists of two components: on the one hand, an indigenous population’s withering Christian faith, inadequate birthrate, and cultural diffidence, and on the other an influx of devout, prolific, and culturally assertive Muslim immigrants. This fast-moving situation raises profound questions about Europe: Will it retain its historic civilization or become a majority-Muslim continent living under Islamic law (the Shari’a)? Wilders, 46, founder and head of the Party for Freedom (PVV), is the unrivaled leader of those Europeans who wish to retain their historic identity. That’s because he and the PVV differ from most of Europe’s other nationalist, anti-immigrant parties. The PVV is libertarian and mainstream conservative, without roots in neo-Fascism, nativism, conspiricism, antisemitism, or other forms of extremism. (Wilders publicly emulates Ronald Reagan.) Indicative of this moderation is Wilders’s long-standing affection for Israel that includes two years’ residence in the Jewish state, dozens of visits, and his advocating the transfer of the Dutch embassy to Jerusalem. (Nationalreview)

Censorship by intimidation-Melanie Phillips
A study by the University of Exeter’s European Muslim Research Centre claims that a rise in the number of hate crimes against Muslims in London is being encouraged by mainstream politicians and sections of the media. In the Guardian Vikram Dodd has written: The study mentions no newspapers or writers by name, but alleges that the book Londonistan, by the Mail writer Melanie Phillips, played a part in triggering hate crimes. The text of this study, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime (http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/emrc/publications/Islamophobia_and_Anti-Muslim_Hate_Crime.pdf by Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Dr Robert Lambert, does not in fact mention my book Londonistan (although it is cited in the bibliography). What it says is this:
Islamophobic, negative and unwarranted portrayals of Muslim London as Londonistan and Muslim Londoners as terrorists, terrorist sympathisers and subversives in sections of the media appear to provide the motivation for a significant number of anti-Muslim hate crimes. For Dodd (and if they did mean my book, the authors of this study) to single me out in this way is a crude smear which bears no relation to the facts. In my book -- as in everything I write about this subject – I go to considerable lengths to stress that many Muslims in Britain and elsewhere have no truck with, and indeed are amongst the principal victims of, Islamic extremism and terrorism. My argument in Londonistan – which is not about London -- is that the British state first turned a blind eye to, and ever since has chosen to appease, Islamist extremism, allowing the radicalisation of British Muslims to gather pace, tolerating the preaching of hatred and doing nothing to stop Islamist subversion through the spread of sharia law. (Spectator.co.uk)

The outsiders-Anthony Julius
He acted for Princess Diana in her divorce. In this exclusive account, he writes for the first time of her unexpected interest in Judaism and the subtle anti-Semitism he faced from the Establishment.
When I acted for Diana, Princess of Wales I was exposed to a subtle form of anti-Semitism that I had neither expected nor experienced at any previous time in my life. My first job was to sue the person who had surreptitiously photographed her exercising at a gym. I then acted for her in her divorce. She telephoned me one afternoon and asked me to come to see her at her home in Kensington Palace. She had received two letters, one from her husband and one from her mother-in-law. Both required of her that she agree to a divorce. The letters had arrived within an hour of each other. She asked me to review them with her. Could I help her draft replies to them? Could I act for her in the inevitable divorce? I told her that it would be my first divorce case. She replied that it didn’t matter — this would also be her first divorce. Until then I had avoided doing divorce work; it had no appeal to me. In the event the divorce was not complicated. The parties behaved well. Terms were agreed relatively quickly; there were no unpleasant exchanges about the children. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Jews Flee Swedish Town in Wake of Anti-Semitism-Avi Yellin
Violent anti-Semitism has become increasingly commonplace in Sweden’s southern city of Malmö, leading many Jewish residents to leave out of fear for their safety. “Threats against Jews have increased steadily in Malmö in recent years and many young Jewish families are choosing to leave the city,” said Fredrik Sieradzki of the Jewish Community of Malmö. Last year, 79 crimes against Jewish residents were reported to the Malmö police, roughly double the number reported in 2008. In addition, Jewish cemeteries and synagogues have been repeatedly defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, and a chapel at another Jewish burial site in Malmö was firebombed last January during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Many Jewish residents of Malmö feel that local anti-Jewish sentiment is linked with negative attitudes towards Israel. In addition to its small community of roughly 700 Jews, Malmö is home to a growing Muslim population. However, local Jews insist that the majority of anti-Jewish sentiment, although certainly existent in the Muslim community, is coming from local Swedes. Sieradzki says that the attitudes of Malmö politicians, especially Social Democrat city council chair Ilmar Reepalu, have allowed anti-Semitism to fester. “He’s demonstrated extreme ignorance when it comes to our problems,” Sieradzki explained. “It’s shameful and regrettable that such a powerful politician could be so ignorant about the threats we face. (INN)

"Gang of 54" Congressmen Slammed for Censuring Israel-Hana Levi Julian
(Israelnationalnews.com) An American-Israeli action group has strongly criticized a group of 54 U.S. Congress members for accusing Israel of inflicting “collective punishment” on the residents of Gaza. Harvey Schwartz, chairman of the nonprofit American Israeli Action Coalition (AIAC), called the Congress members' charge “preposterous,” and said it “amounts to nothing more than outright, outrageous Israel-bashing." The AIAC is a nonprofit organization based in Jerusalem that represents the more than 250,000 U.S. citizens living in Israel. The 54 lawmakers, all Democrats, called on President Barack Obama in a recent letter to pressure Israel into lifting its blockade on Gaza. The letter charged that “the blockade imposed by Israel... following Hamas' coup and particularly following Operation Cast Lead [imposed a] de facto collective punishment... of the residents of the Gaza Strip.” “Nowhere do the 'Gang of 54' point out that there has not been an Israeli in Gaza ever since the Israeli disengagement from there 5 years ago,” Schwartz added. He said that the major exception was the defensive counter-terrorist Operation Cast Lead carried out by the IDF against Hamas terrorists in January 2009. (INN)

Richard Williamson 'unrepentant' over Holocaust denial-David Wroe in Berlin
Richard Williamson, the Catholic Bishop soon to face trial in Germany on charges of denying the Holocaust, is apparently unrepentant, allegedly telling colleagues recently it was a "huge lie" that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
The notorious English bishop also allegedly told colleagues from his ultraconservative brotherhood that "a completely new world order" had been built on the "fact" that Jews were systematically gassed in concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor. Jews, he added, had become "ersatz saviours thanks to the concentration camps," according to a report in German news magazine Der Spiegel. "The fact is that the six million people who were supposedly gassed represent a huge lie," it is claimed he wrote to fellow members of the Society of St. Pius X. In a separate email, he is said to have written that "1.3 million deported people" were not gassed in the Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec and Sobibor concentration camps as historians claim, but were rather transported to the Soviet Union. Williamson is due to face court in the southern German city of Regensburg on April 16 over allegedly Holocaust-denying remarks he made to Swedish television in January last year. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Antisemitism, multiculturalism, and ethnic identity International conference From Europe to Eurabia-Bat Ye’or
The characteristics of current Judeophobia in Europe are very different from previous types of antisemitism. If I was to define it without fear of words, I would call it a Euro-Arab political and theological replacement doctrine of a genocidal character whose purpose is to replace the State of Israel by Palestine. Certainly, the European States have never ceased to reassure Israel on its “safe and recognised” borders, as if the 1949 armistice lines were safe; and as if the European Community (EC) had not financed and supported Arafat and the PLO and legitimised them on the international stage since 1974. Their aim was peace – peace with Arafat which meant without Israel. It is Europe that has internationalised, justified and sanctified the “Palestinian cause” - that is, the vilification of Israel. In other words, the European Community used an Orwellian double-speak reminiscent of the Auschwitz saying: “Work makes Free”. In fact, the purpose of the EC’s Arab policy – subsequently followed by the European Union (EU) – was to delegitimise Israel, and neutralise its self-defence through incitement to hate and defamation. (Atlas Shrugs)

'Goldstone tried to incriminate Israel'-AP AND JPOST.COM STAFF
Berlusconi tells Knesset members world "cannot accept" a nuclear-armed Iran.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lashed out at the Goldstone report on Wednesday during a special session at the Knesset, saying that the UN report on last winter's Operation Cast Lead tried to "incriminate Israel for its legitimate response" to Palestinian rocket attacks. The Italian leader also said the world "cannot accept" a nuclear-armed Iran. From the podium of the Knesset, Berlusconi called on the international community to pursue stronger sanctions against Teheran, which Italy, like Israel and the West, suspects is developing nuclear weapons. "We cannot accept the nuclearization of a country whose leaders have explicitly expressed their desire to destroy Israel, have denied the Holocaust and delegitimized the Jewish state," Berlusconi said, in remarks translated into Hebrew simultaneously. "We cannot make compromises," he said. "The path that must be taken is multilateral oversight, negotiations and sanctions" against Iran. Berlusconi has repeatedly criticized the Islamic Republic during his three-day visit to Israel. On Tuesday, he announced that Italy had cut business ties with Iran by a third since 2007, noting that Italian energy giant ENI had decided not to extend an existing contract to develop an important oil field in Iran. (Jpost)

Terrorists 'plan attack on Britain with bombs INSIDE their bodies' to foil new airport scanners- Christopher Leake, Mail On Sunday Home Affairs Editor
Britain is facing a new Al Qaeda terror threat from suicide ‘body bombers’ with explosives surgically inserted inside them. Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines, Underground trains and buses by secreting bombs in bags, shoes or underwear to avoid detection. But an operation by MI5 has uncovered evidence that Al Qaeda is planning a new stage in its terror campaign by inserting ‘surgical bombs’ inside people for the first time. Security services believe the move has been prompted by the recent introduction at airports of body scanners, which are designed to catch terrorists before they board flights. It is understood MI5 became aware of the threat after observing increasingly vocal internet ‘chatter’ on Arab websites this year.
The warning comes in the wake of the failed attempt by London-educated Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day. (Dailymail.co.uk)

US says it cannot force Iran to shun bomb- Daniel Dombey in Washington, Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and Andrew England in Abu Dhabi
The US said on Tueday that it could not forcibly prevent Iran from developing nuclear arms, but that it still hoped to dissuade Tehran from building a bomb. On a day when Washington sought to make sense of favourable comments from Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, president of Iran, about a compromise previously spurned by Tehran, Dennis Blair, US national intelligence director, said the final decision about nuclear arms was Iran’s to make. Mr Blair said in Senate testimony that in spite of problems in enriching uranium, the progress of Iran’s nuclear programme bolstered the US belief “that Iran is technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon in the next few years if it chooses to do so”. Other US officials were seeking clarification on Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s remarks about a deal offered by the US and allies last year under which most of Tehran’s low-enriched uranium would be sent abroad to be processed into fuel for a medical research reactor. (Financialtimes)

You cannot stop the terrorist threat if you are unable to profile it-Charles Moore
Tony Blair understood the scale of the terrorist threat, and the most effective way of preventing attacks is to target the most suspicious, says Charles Moore.
What is the biggest division within the Western world since September 11, 2001? Why are we split over Iraq, Afghanistan, policing, human rights, immigration, community cohesion and a dozen other subjects?
It is, at root, a disagreement about threat. This is what Tony Blair explained so lucidly to the Chilcot Inquiry on Friday. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/7105115/Iraq-inquiry-defiant-Tony-Blair-heckled-as-he-says-no-regrets.html) On the one hand are those who think that the attack on the Twin Towers proved that there is a global threat to our way of life. On the other hand is a coalition of people who argue that this threat is absurdly exaggerated, or that it is caused by the West’s own aggression. The disagreement plays out everywhere. In this newspaper today, John Yates, the head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police, raises the problem of what is known as “profiling”. How should the authorities check passengers queuing for an aeroplane? Those who pooh-pooh the threat – or say that it is increased by the police’s concentration on particular groups – want only random searches (or none). They put “fairness” first. Those who believe in the threat want to use methods which most effectively foil it. They take their stand on “common sense”. (Telegraph.co.uk)

The Attorney and the General-Andrew C. McCarthy
General Hayden has it right on Obama’s war-by-subpoena.
Mii ichael Hayden the former CIA director, penned a superb op-ed in the Washington Post on Sunday. Succinctly, he tallies the wages of having Attorney General Eric Holder make national-security decisions. Unlike the attorney general, Hayden is a real general, and very much worth heeding. He shows that these decisions have been premised on left-wing political calculations that always shortchange intelligence collection and the pursuit of American interests. Holder’s judgments are not based on what America’s safety requires or on what the law maximally permits U.S. intelligence to do in wartime. As Hayden points out, the policy decisions that President Obama has allowed Holder to make are significant — not only taken one by one, but in their cumulative effect on the ethos of our intelligence agencies. “Intelligence officers,” he writes, “need to know that someone has their back.” After Holder forced the release in April of classified memos prepared by Bush Justice Department lawyers, laying out interrogation tactics and the legal rationale for permitting them, “CIA officers began to ask whether the people doing things that were currently authorized would be dragged through this kind of public knothole in five years. No one could guarantee that they would not.” (Nationalreview)

A Tale of Two Terrorists-DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. AND MARC A. THIESSENThe Justice Department defended the lengthy interrogation of one terror suspect days before the Christmas bomber was hastily Mirandized.
The Obama administration's decision to read the Christmas Day bomber his Miranda rights has rightly come under withering criticism. Instead of a lengthy interrogation by officials with al Qaeda expertise, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was questioned for 50 minutes by local FBI agents and then later advised of his "right to remain silent." It's well understood that the focus on gaining evidence for a criminal trial was an intelligence failure of massive proportions. Not well understood is that the most powerful recent argument for aggressively interrogating terrorists, keeping them in military detention, and prosecuting them in military commissions comes to us from the Obama Justice Department itself. On Dec. 18, 2009, days before the Christmas attack, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, made a secret filing in federal district court that was aimed at saving the prosecution of Ahmed Ghailani, another al Qaeda terrorist. Ghailani is facing charges for helping al Qaeda bomb U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. (WSJ)

How al-Shabaab Targets Western Youth-IPT
To read the tragic account of one of the estimated 20 young Somalis recruited away from Minneapolis for al-Shabaab, click here.
As the new year begins, al-Shabaab, a terror group fighting to overthrow the government of Somalia, has served notice that it intends to play an increasingly prominent role in international jihad. Al-Shabaab fighters declared their support for Al Qaeda in Yemen following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253, allegedly by a terrorist linked to that group. And police in Denmark said a man charged with the attempted New Year's Day murder of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard (who drew a controversial 2005 cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammad) was a member of al-Shabaab with "close links" to leaders of Al Qaeda in East Africa. Al Qaeda and al-Shabaab made official their alliance in September. "It was a brave step taken by a brave Somali man; he attacked a devil who insulted our honored Prophet Mohammed," an al-Shabaab spokesman told the London Daily Telegraph. "Surely an honored Muslim brother or sister will kill that devil on the next attack." (IPT)

Taking Tea with the Taliban-Michael Rubin
Addressing the nation on December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama laid out the case for an augmented American presence in Afghanistan to battle the Taliban forces seeking to push their way back into power. “Over the last several years, the Taliban has maintained common cause with al-Qaeda, as they both seek an overthrow of the Afghan government,” he declared. The president offered a brief account of the Taliban’s rise to power before the U.S. tossed them out in November 2001. “Al-Qaeda’s base of operations was in Afghanistan,” he said, “where they were harbored by the Taliban—a ruthless, repressive, and radical movement that seized control of that country after it was ravaged by years of Soviet occupation and civil war, and after the attention of America and our friends had turned elsewhere.”This has become the standard history of the American role in Afghanistan in the 1990s, and it is certainly true that in the first few years after the 1989 Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Washington’s attention drifted. The first President Bush allowed his one term in office to end without ensuring that the United States had a working embassy in Kabul. His envoy to the Afghan resistance, Peter Tomsen, was based in Washington, and Bill Clinton, when he came into office in 1993, never appointed a successor. (Commentarymagazine)

International Criminal Court proposes powers to try politicians who wage 'illegal wars'-Andrew Gilligan
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague is proposing to take new powers to put politicians who launch "illegal wars" on trial.
At a special "review conference" in Kampala, Uganda, the nations which have signed up to the court, including Britain, will consider a proposal to let the court try the "crime of aggression" - the offence allegedly committed by Tony Blair. If the proposal, backed by more than 70 countries, passes, national leaders alleged to have launched "illegal" wars could be seized, transported to the Hague, tried and imprisoned. UK law requires British police to enforce indictments and arrest warrants issued by the court. Britain, a member of the court, is not against the plan in principle but is fighting furiously for safeguards that would protect Mr Blair and future British prime ministers from arrest. John Washburn, convenor of AMICC, an umbrella body of non-governmental organisations interested in the court, said: "This will be one of the major items on the agenda in Kampala and it is almost certain that it will go down to the wire. "It is a wrestling match between countries." (Telegraph.co.uk)

UN climate change panel based claims on student dissertation and magazine article-Richard Gray, Science Correspondent and Rebecca Lefort
The United Nations' expert panel on climate change based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain tops on a student's dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.
The revelation will cause fresh embarrassment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which had to issue a humiliating apology earlier this month over inaccurate statements about global warming. The IPCC's remit is to provide an authoritative assessment of scientific evidence on climate change. In its most recent report, it stated that observed reductions in mountain ice in the Andes, Alps and Africa was being caused by global warming, citing two papers as the source of the information. However, it can be revealed that one of the sources quoted was a feature article published in a popular magazine for climbers which was based on anecdotal evidence from mountaineers about the changes they were witnessing on the mountainsides around them. The other was a dissertation written by a geography student, studying for the equivalent of a master's degree, at the University of Berne in Switzerland that quoted interviews with mountain guides in the Alps. The revelations, uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph, have raised fresh questions about the quality of the information contained in the report, which was published in 2007. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Global Warming Update-Walter E. Williams
John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, in an hour-long television documentary titled "Global Warming: The Other Side," presents evidence that our National Climatic Data Center has been manipulating weather data just as the now disgraced and under investigation British University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit. The NCDC is a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Its manipulated climate data is used by the Goddard Institute of Space Studies, which is a division of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration. John Coleman's blockbuster five-part series can be seen at www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/81583352.html. The Coleman documentary presents research by computer expert E. Michael Smith and Certified Consulting Meteorologist Joseph D'Aleo. During the 1960s and into the 1980s, the number of stations used for calculating global surface temperatures was about 6,000. By 1990, the number of stations dropped rapidly to about 1,500. Most of the stations lost were in the colder regions of the Earth. Not adjusting for their loss made temperatures appear to be higher than was in fact the case. (Humanevents)

Teaming up antibiotics to fight deadly superbugs-ISRAEL21c Staff
Researchers from Israel and the US have discovered that two marginally useful antibiotics working together could be more effective in fighting off today's deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs than either drug working alone. In Israel, the researchers were led by Prof. Ada Yonath, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for her pioneering work in ribosome crystallography. They found that when used together, the two antibiotics lankacidin and lankamycin (which are produced naturally by the microbe streptomyces) are much more successful in inhibiting growth of pathogens such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a dangerous staph infection that is resistant to certain antibiotics. MRSA was discovered in the UK in 1961, and made its first major appearance in the US 20 years later, sounding alarm bells throughout the medical community. The infection was soon labeled a superbug because of its resistance to traditional antibiotic treatment. (Israel21c)

'Internet addiction' linked to depression, says study-Jenny Hope
Surfing the internet can expose a 'dark side' of the soul, with online addicts more likely to be depressed, claim psychologists. They found the longer people spent on websites, the more unhappy they were. Those worst affected are both depressed and addicted, possibly because they are substituting the net for normal social activities. Research leader Dr Catriona Morrison, from the University of Leeds, said: 'The internet plays a huge part in modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side.' Researchers questioned 1,319 people aged from 16 to 51 to assess levels of internet dependency and depression. In general, the longer people spent online the more depressed they tended to be, reported the journal Psychopathology. Dr Morrison said: 'There was a high correspondence between the amount of time spent on the internet and levels of depression.

The Lure of Radical Islam, or ‘Boys Will Be Boys’- Raymond Ibrahim
According to a recent ABC report, “As many as three dozen criminals who converted to Islam in American prisons have moved to Yemen where they could pose a ‘significant threat’ to attack the U.S., according to a report on al-Qaeda from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. … Also of concern to U.S. officials, the Senate staff found, is a group of ‘nearly 10 non-Yemeni Americans who traveled to Yemen, converted to Islam, became fundamentalists, and married Yemeni women so they could remain in the country.’ … An American official described them as ‘blond-haired, blue-eyed types’ who fit the profile of Americans who al-Qaeda has sought to recruit for terror missions.” These, of course, are not the first Americans — black, white, or in between — to convert to Islam and join the jihad: John Walker Lindh wound up fighting fellow Americans alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan; Adam Gadahn became a major character in al-Qaeda’s propaganda machine; Gregory Patterson, Levar Washington, and Kevin James plotted terror strikes against the U.S.; Christopher Paul and Jose Padilla conspired to use weapons of mass destruction. (Pajamasmedia)

Ayn Rand: engineer of souls- Anthony Daniels
A critical account of the "Chernyshevsky of individualism."
Love thy ego as thyself. —Leonard Peikoff
My copy of The Concept of Benevolence by T. A. Roberts, in the series New Studies in Practical Philosophy, was deaccessioned from a university library. The librarian took advantage of the fact that it had not been borrowed since October 17, 1977, only four years after its publication, to disembarrass his institution of yet another book so uselessly cluttering up the library shelves. It was carefully endorsed with ugly withdrawal stamps to reduce its resale value to an absolute minimum. Perhaps the librarian was a follower of Ayn Rand, the apostle of selfishness, who did not want youth corrupted by stray thoughts of altruism. Going from the loan history of the book (and from my casual observations of British youth), there was never much danger of this, but it is always better to be safe than sorry and therefore to treat selfishness as if it were an endangered species. Ayn Rand was never, in fact, much appreciated or very influential in Europe; at the height of her fame in America, where her books sold by the million, her name was not one to conjure with on the other side of the Atlantic. (Newcriterion)